Delhi govt to merge Food Safety, Drug control depts

PTI | March 15, 2015 7:10 am

Noting that adulterated food is a "serious threat" to people’s lives, the Delhi government has made a plan to merge its two departments – Food Safety and Drug Control- to eradicate adulteration in food and drugs from the city.

The government feels that by merging these two departments, the strength of officials and staff will increase and they would be able to launch "strict checks" against adulteration across the national capital.

"In Delhi, adulterants are used indiscriminately. Most people don’t complain about adulteration as they think it is not such a big issue…but we don’t know that the child who drank milk adulterated by detergents subsequently died," Health Minister Satyendra Jain said.

"We have to get down to basics. We will completely stop adulteration in Delhi," he said.

The minister said, "At present, food and drug adulteration are handled by different departments…we are going to merge them and this adulteration will be stopped completely."

A senior official said the government will spare no effort to identify the perpetrators and bring them to book.

"City government would adopt a stern stance against those found guilty of such acts as consumers are entitled to get best quality products when they make a purchase," the official said.